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Jim Abbotson
Box 138, No 2 Old Brompton Road,
London SW7 3DQ
Tel/voice mail/text 07977 001675
19 November 2006.
The Editor
Evening Standard
P.O.Box. 2309
London W8 5EE
By Fax to 0207 937 2648
Dear Editor
Will Self’s misplaced admiration for Ken Livingstone
Will Self is excelling himself (ES 16 11.06). How can he not see the larger
picture? And as for “finding his peculiar whiney (nasal) voice seductive”………
Ken Livingstone is destroying this great city of ours, and tries some tawdry
tricks to make look as if he’s the ministering angel, amongst other ploys,
by jumping on the green bandwagon, and avoiding facing the key issues of how
to manage congestion within the framework of allowing the economy to
flourish, instead of killing it off with more and more taxes and
restrictions of freedom of movement, and failed and flawed public transport
policies Other cities in the world manage far better than we do.
We need better, more suitable and cheaper public transport to give private
vehicles competition, park and ride schemes from transport hubs round the
inner and outer ring -roads, more and far cheaper parking, that will also
give out of town shopping centres competition, and tax breaks for public and
private car park builders, to free –up the roads. And very importantly
short, medium and long-term plans to increase the facilities for
subterranean travel to take the pressure off surface travel routes. So
London, and other cities and towns will start to flourish again. We also
need to review the suitability or otherwise of bus lanes. We also need to
look hard at the need to have so many tiers of government.
Conveniently for Livingstone the city’s run of prosperity, swathes of fresh
immigrant wealth, the uncounted increased population, the increased drug
trade, and the increased purchasing of British goods and services by the
rapid growth economies of India and China obscure the problems. The true
story is of how consumer choice in London is being eroded by the road
pricing, the Congestion Charge scheme, and overpriced and unsuitably
organised public transport, sending much trade out of London, and storing up
less choice and more taxation for the future
Not once did blinkered and socially divisive Will consider the wider
ramifications of what can but be seen as a vindictive move against the few
pusher users of 4 x 4’s., that affects masses of other users and businesses,
whose tastes he also ridicules. He gets deep into” lefty socialist-speak”,
accusing the 75 to 80 % of residents and businesses of being “up in arms and
in a fury” about the( daft) extension of a( daft and costly)-Charge scheme
westwards.
Livingstone treats London like his own fiefdom, ignoring the wishes of the
electorate, and expert’s reports in the consultative “process”
The motor industry is where most of the improvement in emissions will come
from
Just because Will and his Ken want to bike and use rather ordinary looking
vehicles, and feel worthy doesn’t mean that the rest of London and Britain
can or want to emulate them. We are all ready to find other ways to
contribute to lower pollution Civilisation demands an interest in taste and
some panache too.
There are loads of ways that we all can contribute to our worthy and
necessary but on global level pretty insignificant efforts to reduce
pollution. The jury is out on humans effects on green house gases, and it’s
highly irresponsible to follow that hare so un-knowledgeably..
Its time all concerned thought more about husbandry with in a commercial
framework, as that’s where the money comes from
Ken Livingstone’s agenda isn’t ever going to cut the mustard. He did also
only get 13% of the electorate voting him in, and some 687000 votes. Despite
Dianne Abbott on National television denouncing the “unelected” public
standards board for suspending him for unsuitable behaviour claiming that he
had “millions” voting him in. She has yet to publicly disclaim as requested
by us.
Laws ought to be changed, as to allow the office of Mayor of London to be in
the hands of anyone beyond two terms is wrong.
Interestingly it is said the last Mayor of Paris was removed from office as
a result of the economy of the city suffering under his policies. There are
few establishments in London that haven’t suffered under our present Mayor
It is an iniquity that our parliamentarians aren’t doing anything about the
state of affairs in City Hall and how it harms London
Yours Sincerely
Jim Abbotson
For Rescue London .com
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